I talked to the vet yesterday and he thought that it was behavioral. Google does not give much help beyond recommending a trip to the vet.

Ajax is a 10 month intact male. He has had no other signs of incontinence with the exception of being an excited pee-er up until about 7 month old. Super easy to potty train. Hates his own poop. As a puppy he wouldn't retrieve a toy that landed near his own poo. Now he won't even poo in the backyard (or pee for that matter. It's very odd. He loves marking.) Very picky about where he poops. First time that I saw this was when he was about 4 months old in a mall parking lot. He didn't want to go potty even though I had walked him to some grass and ended up pooping and peeing at the same time on the way back to the car. Off course when he does this he pees all over himself.

It has been increasing in frequency for the last couple months and now it's not unusually for him to do this at last once a day. I've been trying to encourage him mark everything before he poops, but he seems to need a completely empty bladder to prevent peeing on himself. I've seen him pee on himself when pooping after: marking a lot first, squatting to pee earlier in the walk, and even after pooping and peeing on himself once already!

We typically take him out once in the morning, lunch, and evening.

I'm afraid that restricting water could cause prostate problems, but I'm out of ideas.

OMG. I am having this issue with BOTH of my young male Kishu. It's insane. When my co-owner first called me asking for advice on Toutarou (my sesame import), I had never heard of it before and figured it was age-related, like a stage, and he'd grow out of it. We treated the spots where he peed on himself so that a rash wouldn't continue to develop and made sure he was clean after coming in the house.

Two months later, when Cuchulainn was the same age (also about 10 months, btw), he started doing it!

Now that Toutarou is a year and change and he seems to have stopped, so I'm hoping it's a developmental stage of weirdness of some kind? I keep doing the same things with Cu that I suggested with Toutarou - cleaning him off, etc. We also take lots of walks which sometimes helps cut down on the issues of peeing and pooping at the same time.

As an aside, none of my Kishu will go in the yard if THEY think it has "too much" poop in it. I have to clean poop daily because of the dog load in the household. Nami will be the first one to start holding it. Fionna is next, then TK (Shikoku) and Cuchulainn. The Labrador will always go to the bathroom in the yard. I dunno if that's a primitive/Japanese dog thing or a personality thing...

Kouda has done this a handful of times in his life. Thinking back, it was probably when it was raining or we were at an event and he was too distracted to pee first. In his case, it's because he really has to go! I've seen this more often with the girls who don't mark, but it's not as messy! ;)

I think he'll grow out of it. Don't restrict water, but if you are only taking him out 3 times a day, you might want to add a few short pee breaks and keep encouraging appropriate marking.

Both my boys have pee/poop combo on occasion, to be honest, I never thought of it as an issue -- I think when you gotta go, you gotta go! Especially a puppy is tough to hold anything in. I know it's messy, but if he's comfy doing it, I would let it happen naturally. If you react (i.e. shout), I think it'll create more fear issues and make it even harder for him to feel comfy enough to pee/poop. He will prob grow out of it in time!

Thanks everyone. This makes me feel a lot better. I guess I'll chalk it up to being a Nihon-ken thing. I couldn't find many other examples of it outside this community other than in spayed incontinent females. I was worried that is was either medical or that I had induced a behavior problem.

a developmental stage of weirdness of some kind?... none of my Kishu will go in the yard ... I dunno if that's a primitive/Japanese dog thing or a personality thing...

Lol, I hope so. I'll raise you one. Ajax won't even poop or pee at our camp sites when we go camping. We typically have him staked on a 15 foot tether, and he'll cry until we take him on a walk if he has to potty.

but if you are only taking him out 3 times a day, you might want to add a few short pee breaks and keep encouraging appropriate marking.

He goes out more than that, but those are his long walks when he poops. Today we walked a quarter of a mile before he pooped, marking the whole way, but he still peed all over himself. It's been over 2 weeks since the last time I saw him squat or lift a leg to strictly pee. It's like he's intentionally trying to hold it in so he can mark more.

What diet is Ajax on? Perhaps he has some diuretic elements in his food that makes him feel the need to pee more often?

He mostly eats kibble, but some days we'll feed him raw in the evening. Instead of feeling the need to pee, I think the problem is that he's holding it in and then when he poops he can't help but let some out.

Zandrame, Ajax is turning 2 years old tomorrow, and unfortunately he's still doing it. He holds in all his pee for marking and hardly ever dedicatedly pees anymore so ends up pooping on a full bladder and peeing all over himself :(

Tochi is over 8 months old and still does this :( hoping he grows out of it since it’s starting to stain his white belly, even though I wipe it down every time.

Edited to add- Tochi also seems to purposefully hold his pee in so that he can mark on as many things as possible. It’s unfortunate when he tries to poop before marking and empties a full bladder on himself. Sometimes makes me wish I had gotten a girl instead!

My Kishu x also hated her poop. She effectively "dung pile" trained herself (almost like what you'd see with alpacas) by only pooping in the far back corner of our yard, and avoiding that area unless it was to do her business. It was the strangest thing.

I've had two dogs who would poop and pee at the same time. One was my service dog, who was taught to potty on command; over the years I rewarded for pooping and peeing faster and faster until eventually, I could just say "Do your thing!" and she'd poop and pee at the same time. That was obviously trained though. The other dog is one I adopted at 2 years old. He ends up peeing and pooping at the same time usually if he's been holding his pee for a while or he drank a lot of water beforehand.